George Galloway in Big Brother

24 Jan 2006

Today there is going to be a double eviction from the Big Brother house. And for millions of people this is the event of the week; far more important than (say) Tony Blair’s monthly press conference. My one-time Labour colleague George Galloway is one of those facing eviction. Things have gone badly for him. But it could have been worse. In the opening minutes of the series I noticed George eyeing up Sven-Goran Eriksson’s old girlfriend Faria Alam. If you know George then you know she is just his type. A horrible thought came to mind. “Please George” I said to myself “Please do not end up shagging this woman live in front of millions of TV viewers” Fortunately for George she was evicted early.

I first heard about George in the eighties when he was a key Bennite lieutenant in Scotland. We met for the first time as MP’s after the 1987 General Election. He was as clever and charismatic as his reputation but, even then, he was a loner. Scottish MP’s, are very clubbable. If they have not met at university or the Scottish Bar, they bond over a few lemonades on the long weekly journeys back home. But George(who is teetotal) held himself aloof. As the Respect party’s sole MP, George’s isolation is worse than ever. The organisational spine of Respect is the Socialist Workers party but George has always hated and despised Trotskyites.  So the first anyone in his party knew he was going on Celebrity Big Brother was when they turned on their television. Perhaps if George had people around him that he took seriously he might have asked for advice before going on the show. But he is not given to self-doubt and presumably he thought that he would triumph in the Big Brother house as he triumphed before the US Senate. But any twelve year old could have told him that nobody gets the better of Big Brother’s producers. They are out to make participants look as stupid and grotesque as possible. And with twenty four hours of footage to edit down daily they always succeed.

In the Westminster village they all believe that George is finished. Certainly he will never be able to get up to speak in Parliament again without a chorus of pussy cat noises. And he will be shocked by how silly the programme has made him look. But he will also be gratified to know that he is currently the most talked-about politician in Britain. Teenagers who are only dimly aware of Tony Blair know exactly who George is. And in the twenty-first century celebrity is a valuable political currency no matter how you have actually acquired it; as the current governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger can testify. It may seem impossible for George to revive his political career. But, as the unfortunate Oona King and the series of newspapers he has successfully sued for libel will tell you, never bet against George Galloway.

 



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